THIS COUNTRY IS NOT FOR WOMEN

by Pulkita Anand

Is India a Safe Place for Women? Another Brutal Killing Raises the Question. The rape and murder of a trainee doctor at her own hospital has brought up, once again, uncomfortable truths about a country that wants to be a global leader. —The New York Times, August 22, 2024

This country is not for women
Its daughters are scared in the womb
This country is not for women
Its wives are pleading for their lives
This country is not for women
Its sisters are trampled by its brothers
This country is not for women 
Its friends are betraying and selling friendship
This country is not for women
Its air is filled with lust
Where leery eyes want to defile innocence
This country is not for women
Its voices are crushing their voices
This country is not for women
Its growth lies in pushing them in the name of culture
This country is not for women
Its men feel pride in demeaning them
This country is not for women
Its fathers are not desiring their daughters
This country is not for women

Its character lies in cursing them

Pulkita Anand is an avid reader of poetry. She has translated one short story collection Tribal Tales from Jhabua. Author of two children’s e-books, her recent eco-poetry collection is we were not born to be erased. Various journal publications include:  Setu Journal, Shortstory Kids, The Criterion, Twist and Twain, Tint Journal, Indian Ruminations, Langlit, Ashvamegha, Lapis Lazuli, Conifer Call, The Creativity Webzine, WinC Magazine, Stanza Cannon, Superpresent, Madwomen in the Attic, Poetica, The Uglywriters, Impspired, Literary Yard, Academy of the Heart and Mind, Kritya, The Amazine, Carmina Magazine, and Asiatic.

THE CONDITIONAL CASE FOR CONVICTION

by Diana Cole

A patron of a laundromat near Cup Foods watching the Derek Chauvin trial on Monday. Credit: Joshua Rashaad McFadden for The New York Times, April 6, 2021

for George Floyd

 

 

Nothing can be true, so the dog barks all night

          missing the man who feeds him.

 

Into the fire go the stars. If the garbage is collected

          in the morning, the moon will go too.

 

Without evidence of insects, birds have nothing to eat.

          He’s talking so he’s fine.

 

Nothing but a man, a sizable guy who loves his Mama, 

          who lost his Mama.  

                                    

I kneel in case the sun will intervene in time.

          Inside the car, the back seat is a thick darkness. 

 

A black man could get lost if the air is handcuffed.

          Even if he pleads 20 times, he is under the influence,

 

under suspicion, under the knee, undertaken.

          All for 20 dollars, supposing that, even if, as long as… 

Diana Cole, a Pushcart Prize nominee, has had poems published in numerous journals including Poetry East, Spillway, the Tar River Review, the Cider Press Review, GBH Public Radio, Friends Journal, Verse Daily, and the Main Street Rag, and upcoming in Crab Creek Review. Her chapbook Songs By Heart was published in 2018 by Iris Press. She is an editor for The Crosswinds Poetry Journal and a member of Ocean State Poets whose mission is to encourage the reading, writing and sharing of poetry.